UFOs and Edward Snowden

Normally, I would have put a mention of the following on the post about my interview with John Greenewald. We did talk, briefly, about Edward Snowden and his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, podcast #1368. Snowden had said that he had searched for UFO related documents but that he had found nothing. While this might be an extraordinary claim that suggests there is nothing hidden in government files about UFOs, it presumes that Snowden had access to

Edward Snowden

everything and that nothing is hidden away in databases or archives to which he had no access.

Here's why I can say something like this. The most obvious example is the Navy videos that were released after Snowden had made his document dump. Clearly there seems to be a UFO component here, but the Navy didn’t refer to the Nimitz incident as anything to do with UFOs. They talked about UAP. That might be why Snowden found nothing and this alone undercuts the importance of his revelation about UFOs.

But that’s not the only problem. Many UFO documents were copied to the CIA and the NSA as reported by both Jan Aldrich and Brad Sparks. This means, if nothing else, if you were searching for UFO related material, and if you used the correct search parameters, you should have found something. Anything. There were UFO documents out in the classified areas that would suggest some importance to them.

We learned, in 1986, about something called Moon Dust. The documents, first found by Robert Todd during a FOIA search, revealed this classified project that had a UFO component to it. I found four cases in the Project Blue Book files that were labeled as Moon Dust. Granted, they were crappy cases and I think they all had terrestrial explanations but the real point is that they landed in Project Blue Book, which had the mission of UFO investigation.

Once the Moon Dust name was compromised, it was changed. Todd, among others, attempted to learn the new name but were told that even the name was classified. That told us that Moon Dust had survived the compromise and that the code words for the mission had changed.

All of this suggests that Snowden’s effort to learn about UFOs, alien visitation, and investigation of UAPs, should have found something. This would not be something Earth shattering, but probably more of the Moon Dust type of material that we all saw years ago. Maybe it would have compromised the new code name but the point is, there should have been something.

Since Snowden found nothing, it is more than likely he didn’t have access to the database that contained that information. There are networks inside the government, computer networks that are not accessible to every computer in the government. Some are separated so that those who do not have a need to know can’t just logon through one database and end up seeing something they shouldn’t.

I’m reminded of Robert Dean’s claim to have seen a top secret cosmic document that he said contained information about a UFO crash retrieval in Europe. He said that he had been in the command post, or somewhere, on night duty. He was having trouble staying awake when an Air Force officer dropped The Assessment on his desk, telling him that it should keep him awake. The Assessment outlined the retrieval operation.

This story is bunk because no officer is going to provide anyone a top-secret document without being assured that he was cleared to see it and that he had a need to know what it contained. Highly classified material just isn’t passed round like that. It has to be signed out and then signed back in. Records are kept.

No, I’m not suggesting that Snowden should have found some reference to The Assessment, or to the MJ-12 documents for that matter, but that highly classified documents are carefully guarded to prevent compromise. They are compartmentalized. They are separated and the more sensitive the material, the more access is restricted. If we are talking about the proof positive of alien visitation, then that information would be among the most restricted and the most difficult to penetrate.

BTW, I’m not suggesting that either The Assessment or MJ-12 are real. There would be no mention of them in any classified database because both are hoaxes and therefore were not classified. But other information about UFOs or UAPs, would have found their way into classified databases. We know this because, as noted, some of that classified information has been declassified after Snowden’s document dump. Had he found something about them, then his conclusion, or speculation might have told his something. That he found nothing tells us something else.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that the UFO material was contained in databases and computer networks that were beyond Snowden’s capability to access. He found nothing because he couldn’t find the right network to compromise. It suggests that the CIA, the Air Force, the DoD, or the Navy might not store this sort of thing in a database. Those who need it might just have to travel, physically, to the point where the information, in hard form is stored to review. Such an extreme step would, of course, prevent a computer breach compromise. I don’t know that. All I’m saying here is that Snowden’s revelation might not be important because he couldn’t access the right network.

Jan Aldrich and the Ramey Memo Update

(Blogger's Note: With the kind permission of Jan Aldrich, I am posting his apology to us about the Ramey Memo. This isn't so much as a "gotcha" as it is an illustration on how gentlemen in our modern society should conduct themselves. Jan made an error because a couple of links didn't work when he first attempted to use them. He responded with what he believed to be an oversight on our part as we attempted to decipher the Ramey Memo. Realizing his error, and finding the links were now working, he reassessed his reaction and offered an apology. I would like to see more of this, which is not to say apologies but all of us acting or reacting with such class.)

I want to make a public apology to Kevin Randle, Isaac Koi and the Above Top
Secret website.  I based my criticism on an incomplete view of the so-called
Ramey Memo on the Above Top Secret website.

When I first tried to click on the URL Isaac provided on the Above Top
Secret Website, there was no response. Attempting a search I got various
discussions and claims above the item, but not the latest posting.  Talking
to Barry after I told him his efforts were not represented there. I did
know that Barry had provided his assessment of the item to Kevin Randle who
had used it on his blog.  Barry indicated that the blog and other items were
indeed on the Above Top Secret website not just a compilation of previous
items on the subject.  Checking again, they sure were!   The URL worked and
all items from Kevin Randle's blog and Barry Greenwood's work were on the
website.

I am not trying to excuse for my posting.  My responsibility was to
thoroughly check the site before shooting from the hip on something.  So I
am now on Patrick Gross' "UFO Stupid" list up close to the top.

Previously, I had rather sharp exchanges with the late J. Bond Johnson on
this subject both in public and off-line about this subject which moved to a
threatened law suit on his part so maybe I am too sensitive about this
subject.*

Again, I humbly apologize to all concerned and to the readers of the various
email lists for my irresponsible actions in this matter.

Jan L. Aldrich

*J. Bond Johnson threatened to sue me on a number of occasions if I didn't retract the statements I had made about what he told me, all of which were recorded on audiotape. Given the circumstances, I would have almost enjoyed the lawsuit which would have vindicated my position on the matter. Johnson, instead, insisted on claiming I had misquoted him, I had maligned him, I had recorded him without his permission (though on tape you hear me ask if he minded if I recorded the conversations) and other assorted allegations. He, of course, never initiated the legal action, I suspect because he knew the truth and knew he had said all the things I claimed he did. Too often in the world of the UFO, we resorted to lawsuits when it seems that a careful word here or there would resolve the issue.

Jan Aldrich, Barry Greenwood and the Ramey Memo

Jan Aldrich seemed to be upset that we are attempting to read the Ramey memo and has likened the effort to that of the promoters of the Not Roswell Slides. I fear that he has misunderstood our mission or maybe he assigned his own beliefs to what he thinks we are doing as opposed to what we are actually doing, but the point is that this is nothing like the fiasco that is the Not Roswell Slides.

We have not expressed a point of view about what the message says… Oh, sure, David Rudiak believes that it is a classified document that might hold important information, but that is not the driving force for us. David would be delighted if we were able to validate his interpretation of the memo including the phrase, “victim of the wreck,” but we have been unable to clarify the image enough to make that call.

Jan is concerned that we won’t mention Barry Greenwood’s interpretation of part of the memo, though such a concern is unwarranted. In fact, more than six years ago, I had explored Barry’s suggestion about his reading of part of the memo. You can read that posting here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/ramey-memo-and-barry-greenwood.html

At that time David argued passionately that Barry’s interpretation didn’t quite fit all the known facts. We have to remember that David has worked on all this extensively for many years and believes that he had established to a high degree of certainty what the memo says. There is a great deal of agreement with his analysis inside the UFO community… the problem is, as anyone who looks at the memo can see, there is ambiguity in the interpretations. If there was none, then we would be having another conversation.

Jan’s point seems to be that we’ll ignore the conflicting data pretending that it doesn’t exist. However, we have attempted to look at all the evidence, including much of what Barry has written and incorporate that in our paper as it deals with the history of the attempts to read the memo. I have, for example, explored the possibility that J. Bond Johnson, the reporter/photographer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, brought the document into Ramey’s office with him, which would make it wire service copy. David disagrees for several reasons including that while Johnson had said just this in some of his earlier interviews, he also repudiated that claim in many of his later interviews. Johnson realized that if it was wire service copy, then the importance of the memo was badly degraded but if it was a classified document, then this could be the “smoking gun.”

But here’s my point. It is true that David is quite passionate in his opinion, which doesn’t make it wrong. Jan is quite passionate in his opinion, which doesn’t make it wrong. Where Jan missed the boat is with his idea that we are attempting to recreate a Not Roswell Slides presentation that will ignore any evidence that conflicts with what Jan believes is our mission. But rather than hide the data, or obscure it with digital tricks, we have made everything available on line for those who wish to look at it. All we are attempting to do is clarify what the memo says not force an interpretation on everyone. We are attempting to solve the riddle and while no matter what we learn, there will be detractors, in the end we hope to have provided an answer for this… a true answer and not one that appeals to one end of the spectrum or the other… an answer that will resolve the issue.